


Playlist Of How I Found You

by BloopsieDaisy



Series: Music AU [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M, Music AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 12:43:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4607208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloopsieDaisy/pseuds/BloopsieDaisy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gavin loves playing the piano, wants nothing more than to play on those ivory keys. He loves any and all music. And soon, he is given a chance to be taught by one of the bests. Thing is, the young lad has to move to the states to take that chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Let’s Get This Show Going

**Author's Note:**

> This is a repost from tumblr, where I originally posted it.  
> http://bloopsiedaisy.tumblr.com/

Gavin Free has always been in love with music. Always has and always will. He started lessons at a young age, and piano was always his strong suit and first love. But as of the last few months though, the young musician had fallen into a slump of sorts. His number of public performances had gone down and his uploads to his YouTube page had been sparse. No original pieces, no covers, nothing.

Whenever his friend Dan would ask if he was alright, he would say yes, but Dan knew better. Gavin had been in a mood like this before, several times actually. But they would usually only last for a few days to a week. But never one that had lasted a span of months. The fact that he wasn’t playing had to be killing him. The kid can’t go one day without touching music, he seriously can’t. Dan has known him all his life and he knows that he hates being in these funks.

Gavin had gotten to the point where it has him staying up in his room for most of the day, only coming down for food and the occasional human interactions. Dan had just about enough of this piss poor mood of his. So he began to come up with a plan to fix this mess.

And boy did he ever come up with one.

If Gavin knew what he was up to though, he would put a stop to it immediately. So being the good friend that he is, he would do it in secrecy. His efforts finally came to fruition a few weeks later.

They were just coming home from some shopping and lunch, picking up some new games and music as well. Gavin was checking the mail as Dan walked up to the front door. He was in the middle of unlocking the door when he heard a loud squawk from behind him. Sounded like a bird, but he knew better. The Brit turned and saw his friend standing in the middle of the walkway with an open letter in his hands and a dumb founded expression. He had a pretty good idea what the letter said to have made Gavin go into shock, but he played dumb for the time being.

“You alright there Gavin?” he asked as he walked over to him. Getting no response out of him, he snapped his fingers in his face a few times. Thankfully that got him out of trance, next step would have been a knock upside the head. “You’re acting like a bloody zombie, what does it say?”

“Oh sorry, its just, shite.”

Dan sighed seeing as he was just being a dumb. “Well when you figure out how to use words again, let me know. I’ll be inside, not freezing out here like an idiot.” The taller man was half way in the door when the smaller stormed pass him. He just cocked a brow at him, confused if he was even sane anymore.

“You know that one music instructor guy from the US?”

“Haywood? He teaches at some school for the arts or something right?”

“Yeah! He’s inviting me to be in his class and go to the school there!”

Dan was trying real hard not to break into a huge smile right now. Gavin looked like he was going to start bouncing off the walls in a few seconds. He had a giant smile on his face, and it was the most life he’s seen in him in a long time. This was the best reaction he could have asked for. “His music is so brilliant! I could learn so much from him. I wish I knew how he heard of me though. Oh shit, what if he’s seen some of my videos. All I have up there is rubbish.”

“Apparently not to him.”

And that made Gavin stop. He did have a point. He wouldn’t be inviting him to go to another country and learn from him if he thought he wasn’t worth his time. Dan sighed and snapped his fingers again. The blonde blinked out of his thoughts and looked to him. “You’re doing it again.”

“Sorry.”

“So, are you going to accept his offer?”

Gavin was quiet for a moment, before a giant grin grew on his face.

“Yeah. I’m gonna do it.”


	2. First We Have To Get There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin makes it to America, and with the help of his new friend, he gets started on his new life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a repost from tumblr, where I originally posted it.  
> http://bloopsiedaisy.tumblr.com/

Over the next few months, Gavin made the needed arrangements for his move to the US. And by Gavin, really it meant Dan, because Gavin wasn’t really the best with matters like this. Dan said he would take care of everything and go over it all for him when it was set. While he did that, he told Gavin to work on some music. Rather it was composing something new, working on a cover, or just practicing pieces he already knew. He just wanted him to play.

And surprisingly he did. Gavin was excited to be learning under Haywood, he had admired the musician for as long as he could remember. So just the thought of meeting him alone was enough to light a fire under his ass. The house was never quiet up until the day before his flight.

On the drive to the airport Dan had told Gavin all he needed to know when he landed. And just in case, he wrote it all down and shoved it in his bag. Which was a good thing, because he’s pretty sure all he just said went in one ear and out the other. Gavin had been constantly moving and jittering in the passenger seat since they left the house. They got to the airport in plenty of time to get through security and arrive at the gate with no worries.

Dan looked to Gavin and saw that he was still moving around like a twit. “B will you quit that? You’re gonna be fine.” He took a hand and rested it on Gavin’s shoulder. Not only to try and reassure him, but to physically hold him down. Because holy shit dude, he seriously needed to stop.

“But what if I’m not as great as he originally thought I was? What if he hears me play in person and regrets the whole thing?”

“He won’t. You know why? Because you are an amazing player and you deserve to be there just as much as those other blokes.” Gavin was silent, staring in awe as he listened to his friend’s words. “I know it, he knows it, and deep down you know it too.” Before Gavin could say anything the intercom went off, calling for all passengers for his flight to start boarding.

“Now get out of here. Call me or something when you get all set up so I know you’re alright.” Gavin sighed, but smiled.

“Alright, fine.” The two hugged and then the musician boarded the plane that would send him on his new adventure.

The flight was long, which was a given, travelling out of country normally means a long flight. For a good portion of it Gavin slept on the ride. And for the time he was awake he worked on what he would play first when class started, as well as thinking about how would living there be. Wondering if he would be able to make any friends also came to mind. Aside from Dan, Gavin really didn’t have friends. He started to worry if he would get along with anyone.

He decided to take one problem at a time. The current problem being finding the person that he was supposed to meet when he landed in Austin. Once Gavin was down and off the plane he went to baggage claim to grab his belongings, but after that he was a bit clueless. Dan said there would be someone to meet him there but he didn’t say where that would be or what the person would look like.

So he did the only thing he could think of and that was just walk around and see what he could find. Gavin hope the person would have a sign or at least recognize him somehow, because he was just walking aimlessly around like a moron. After going at it for a while he finally found something. It was a blonde girl, who looked to be about the same age as Gavin. She had a sign with his name and a little British flag drawn on it. The girl saw Gavin looking her way and smile at him as she started to walk at him. “I’m guessing you’re the person I’m suppose to meet?”

“I’m guessing you’re right. I’m Barbara. Took you long enough to get down here.” The two shook hands as they walked outside and towards the car.

“I didn’t know where you would be, or what you even looked like.”

“Well, found you now and everything’s cool.” They got to the car and Barbara unlocked. Once the two of them got everything loaded up they got in and headed on out. “So Gavin,” started the blonde as she started to pull the car out of the lot. “Have you ever been out of the country before?”

“Never. This is my first time.”

“Kind of scary, huh?”

“Yeah.” Gavin pulled himself in a bit. He had a weird feeling since landing. Things weren’t too different, but there was still that weird feeling of being somewhere new and faraway from home. “I’m guessing you know the feeling?” Barbara nodded.

“Yeah. I moved down here from Canada. I applied to the school and to my surprised I got accepted. Then before I realized it, I was moving to a place I’ve only seen in movies.” The two laughed. Gavin was glad Barbara understood what he was feeling. It was going to make the transition easier. And she seemed really nice, so maybe they could be friends. “It’s actually one of the reasons I was paired with you.”

“Paired with me?”

“Your friend didn’t explain much to you did he?” The Brit thought back and remembered Dan trying to tell him stuff on the drive this morning. Maybe he should have paid attention instead of freaking out. Barbara couldn’t help but laugh. “Basically, I’m not just here to pick you up from the airport. We’re also going to be roommates at the school dorms.”

“Wait, but you’re a girl.”

“The school doesn’t really give a shit. They’re pretty cool with stuff like this. Plus, I was the only one with room for a roommate so there was really no choice.”

The rest of the drive was full of questions and small talk. They talked about life at school and about themselves. Gavin learned that Barbara came to the school for theater and modeling, and had a love for puns. Barbara found out about Gavin being a big old music nerd and being a piano master, or at least that’s what she called him. He liked to ask ridiculous questions, play pranks and make dumb bets.

By the time they reached the school grounds. Gavin’s fear of making no friends vanished. Because if Barbara was this much of a delight, he only hoped there were more just as great as her.


	3. Getting Your Foot in The Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin makes a few more friends before classes start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The school is more like a college, in terms of a general age range of people going to it. Most of them are around their early 20’s no one younger than 21. All teachers being in their 30’s or higher.
> 
> This is a repost from tumblr, where I originally posted it.  
> http://bloopsiedaisy.tumblr.com/

“Here we are! Home sweet home!”

More like home sweet mess. As the musician looked around the room there were clothes and various other belongings of Barbara’s scattered everywhere. There was one big mound on the left side of the room, and he could only pray there was a second bed under there. He could barely see the desk and the first bed.

“You sure we’re both going to fit in here?”

“What are you talking about? We’ll be fine.” She reassured him. Gavin just sighed as he looked at everything. “I just need to clean up is all. I was going to do it before you showed up, but I just got busy.” Barbara walked into the room and started to grab stuff and tossed it onto her bed. She even unearth the giant mound and showed there was actually a bed under there. Gavin walked in and set his luggage onto the bed. “You can start unpacking and I’ll take care of cleaning all my junk up.”

The two set out to do just that. Barbara cleared out the dresser and moved all her clothes to the closet so Gavin could have the dresser. Gavin didn’t bring much. Clothes, laptop, sheet music and that was about it. He figured they go and buy whatever he needed for classes when he got there. Gavin was done way before Barbara was, and there was no way he was just going to leave her to do it herself. No matter what she said. So after a minute of protest, the two went about the getting the cleaning done together.

Now originally, Barbara only thought it would take an hour or so to get the room settled for the two of them. But before they could notice, an hour became two, then two turned into more than two. The two of them only noticed when there was suddenly a knock at the door. Looking in the direction of the noise, Gavin saw there was a girl with nice long red hair standing in the doorway.

“Hey Barb, did you forget about us? It’s, oh! I’m sorry, you must be the new guy.” The girl smiled as she walked over and hugged the Brit. The sudden contact confused him and his face showed it. When the girl pulled back she saw the look and just smiled more. “I’m Lindsay by the way, nice to meet you.”

“Oh, uh, nice to meet you. I’m Gavin.” Barbara pulled herself out of what she was doing and joined the other two.

“Hey Linds, what’s this about people forgetting you?”

“You! You said you wanted to get together with everyone so they could meet Gavin and have a mini welcome party or whatever you had called it.” explained Lindsay. The blonde just gave a confused expression but it changed once the realization hit her.

“Oh shit, you’re right! Crap, I forgot!” She tripped as she scrambled to grab her stuff and just set everything that was still out of place to be dealt with later. Gavin couldn’t help but laugh as she scrambled around. He turned and saw Lindsay was laughing at her friend as well.

“She’s normally not this bad.” She said as she turned to Gavin. “Barb never forgets anything important, but she was so focused on getting the room ready for you she forgot that she wanted to take you out tonight.” That made Gavin smile. Barbara planned all this stuff for him, before she even met him. She wanted to make him feel welcome and be friends and the whole lot. Didn’t know if he would be a dick or not, just thought and planned for the best of it all.

“Ok! I’m good now!” Shouted the blonde as she hopped out in front of them. The two turned to her and out of their thoughts. “Where are the guys?”

“They got impatient and said they would just meet us there.”

“Dicks.”

The place they picked to spend the evening was one of the bars close to the school as well as some other colleges. Students went to it often, half because of how close it was to them. There was some bad planning on their part though, for they chose to do this on the night Gavin flew in, which was a Friday. Which was the day where every student ever decided to go out.

When they first walked into the place, Gavin was taken back quite a bit. He’d never seen a pub so crowded and full of people before. “You don’t get out much do you?” Lindsay joked as she saw the look on the Brit's face.

“That obvious?”

“Little bit.”

“Sorry, its been a while since I’ve gone out. Also the places I’ve been to were never this packed.” Lindsay slung an arm around him and hugged him to her side. 

“Don’t worry. We got ya.” She reassured with a bright smile.

“I think I see them over in the back.” They look to Barbara and saw where she was pointing to. Gavin had no idea why he bothered looking, he didn’t know what the lads looked like. Curiosity he assumed.

“Yeah, that’s them. Come on.” Lindsay moved her arm and grabbed Gavin’s hand. She followed behind Barbara and pulled Gavin with her as they walked through the crowd. Eventually they made their way through the mess and made it to the table their friends were at. Gavin saw that there were five guys sitting at the table. One had curly hair and glasses, one that looked Hispanic with glasses, a blonde with short hair, an Asian and one with dark hair.

“About time you got here.” barked the one with curls.

“Sorry, lost track of time.” apologized Barbara. “Anyway guys, this is Gavin. Gavin, these are the guys.”

“Hey, I think we deserve better introductions than that.” whined the blonde boy.

Barbara groaned out, but only as a joke. “Fine. Michael, Ray, Kerry, Monty, Miles.”

Gavin was certain he missed half the names she had just spat out. But smiled meekly and waved none the less.

“We ordered already, hope that was fine.” Spoke the blonde again, or Kerry.. Lindsay scooched over and sat next to who he was sure was Michael. Barbara went over and sat across from Lindsay over by Miles.

“You ok Gavin?” She asked. The Brit was nervous. He knew Barbara and Lindsay seemed nice, but the guys, he didn’t know them. He doesn’t want to come off like a complete tosspot. So instead of doing anything, he was having an inner freak out. “Here.” Lindsay reached out and grabbed Gavin’s hand and pulled him slowly towards her. She made room and had him sit next to her.

“So Barbara says you like music?” asked Monty.

“Uh, yeah. I can play a few different instruments, but my strong suit and favorite to play is the piano.” He answered nervously.

“That’s cool. I’m in animation. I would love to hear you play sometime, maybe even have you do the music for one of my projects.”

“Sure, that sounds top.” Monty seemed nice. Gavin started to smile as they talked more. The girls smiled as they watched him start to open up.

“I’m sorry, but what the fuck does that mean?”

“What?” Gavin looked and saw Michael glaring his way.

“What does that mean? Being ‘top’?”

“Oh, just that it sounds great, or y'know, top.” Gavin shrunk back down in his seat.

“Oh lighten up Michael.” Lindsay punched Michael in the arm.

“What? I’m just saying. He already has the accent, does he need the dumb words too?”

“Better than using a curse every five seconds.” chimed in Ray.

“Shots fired.”

“I’m sorry Michael.”

“Wow. You even manage to not say people’s names correctly.”

“Oh hey look, booze is here.”

And not a moment too soon.

As the food and drinks arrived they continued with the small talk. Talking about what everyone was at the school for and what they did for fun. Like he said, Monty wanted to be an animator. Miles and Kerry were there for writing. Michael and Ray were both in audio and visual stuff. Though Ray was more the audio guy and Michael was visual. And Lindsay was in for theater and film.

He also learned that Michael seemed like he was always mad and grumpy, but apparently was a truly nice guy deep down. Ray joked and poked fun a lot, but did know when to take things seriously. Barbara liked puns, Lindsay liked cats, and so on and so on. By the end of the night, Gavin learned that everyone at the table were a delight and blast to be around. Everyone lived at the school dorms, so when it was finally time to head out they decided they would just leave all together.

“You’re pretty alright Gavin.” said Ray as he patted him on the back. “You should join us for game night some time.”

“What’s game night?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. We get together and just play video games all night. Maybe order pizza or some shit and just act like a bunch of dumb nerds.”

“Sure. Sounds like fun.”

“Cool. Well, I better get Michael to bed. Before their drunk make out session goes one step further.” Ray and Gavin looked over and watched as Michael and Lindsay exchanged sloppy kisses. He had found out that Michael and Lindsay were dating and had been for a while now.

“You take Michael, we got Lindsay. She’s close to us.” offered Miles. “Monty and Kerry aren’t that far gone where I can’t handle one more of them.”

“I pray for your safe travels my friend.” After their dumb, dramatic departure, Miles left to take Lindsay and the boys home.

“See you later Gavin. I’ll text you later.” And with that, Ray and Michael were gone too.

“So!” Gavin jumped as he felt someone cling to him from behind. In the corner of his eye he saw that it was Barbara. She was just as drunk as the others were. “What you think? Like everyone? Anyone you wanna bump uglies with?” Gavin couldn’t stop the laugh he let out. She was sloshed.

“Yeah, they’re pretty great.”

“You’re pretty great! And you were worried.” True, he was. But not anymore. “Now that you’re done being all mopey. Take me home. The queen needs her beauty sleep before showing her new knight the kingdom tomorrow.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

As Gavin walked the Canadian maiden home, he thought about all the fun stuff he looked forward to doing with his newly made friends.


	4. A Little Pre-Show Jitters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Freewood is finally here!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music in this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UhlCFvFCAA
> 
> It’s from an episode of NUMB3RS, one of my favorite shows ever! Its a really short song but I love it anyway, here it is for you to listen to yourselves
> 
> This is a repost from tumblr, where I originally posted it.  
> http://bloopsiedaisy.tumblr.com/

The weekend was spent mostly making sure Gavin was ready for classes. Which meant going out and buying school junk and all that stuff. They also finished what was left to clean of their room. Gavin was ready to go by Sunday, so Barbara thought that for the rest of the day she would give him a tour of the school.

“So, looking at your schedule, it seems you lucked out and got all cool teachers.” said Barbara as she looked at Gavin’s class list. “Not saying any of the teachers here are bad, just some are more fun than others.” The two had covered half the school so far. The goal was to make sure Gavin knew where his classes were located and how to get to and from each of them. “Wait here a sec Gav, I’m going to go find an office and grab a map. I wanna mark all this down for you as a back up.” And before he could say anything, she had left to do what she said. The Brit let out a sigh. He was now left by himself in an unknown area. Lovely.

No point in just standing around waiting and doing nothing, so he thought he would walk around and look at the what was around him. The place seemed nice enough, Gavin had nothing for comparison though except for the public schools back home. Nonetheless, everything was nice. Earlier they had walked into some of Barbara’s friends and a few teachers. All of them seemed friendly and chill.

The Brit kept walking until he spotted a classroom that was open. He walked up to it and to look inside, seeing that it was a music room. And seeing it was such, Gavin couldn’t help but walk in. It was bigger than the classrooms he had seen so far. There were desks and chairs set up around the back of the room, a white board up front along with a teacher’s desk in the front far corner. There was a back door next to the desk, probably were all the instruments were stored. But there was one thing in the room that caught Gavin’s eye more than anything else in there, the beautiful baby grand piano in the near middle of the room.

Gavin made his way to the piano, and as he got closer he could see that it was made of a beautiful dark wood and had nice little details painted on it with a nice shade of gold paint. After looking the body and keys over, he could tell it was well taken care of. No dirt or dust or anything was sitting on the instrument. Looking at the piano, Gavin wanted to play it so badly. He tapped two keys, their sound nice and clear. It was one of the most perfectly tuned pianos he’s ever heard, well, next to his piano at least. After hearing just the two notes, he decided he had to play it now.

Gavin sat down on the seat, making sure his posture was correct and straight. Once his hands were at the ready, the musician took a deep breath then started to play. The song wasn’t anything complicated or fast paced, it was slow and simple yet strong. As he played Gavin slowly closed his eyes, feeling the music. When the song was getting close to the end, it was played quieter until it was over. Once over Gavin smiled as he opened his eyes again.

“Wow, that was quite the song.”

Gavin jumped in his seat at the voice out of nowhere. He quickly turned and saw that he was no longer alone. And not only was he not alone, he was now not alone with none other than Ryan Haywood.

“Ryan! Oh, I mean, Mr. Haywood, sir I-” The teacher chuckled at the boy’s nervousness. The calm he had before completely vanished.

“Either one is fine. As long as you’re not disrespectful, I don’t mind what you call me.” he assured.

“Oh uh, I’m just going to stick with your last name. If that’s ok.”

“Alright.” Ryan smiled at Gavin and he couldn’t help but smile in return. The man had a calming demeanor to him. It was nice. “It’s nice to finally meet you Gavin.”

“You too. I’ve been a fan of your work for as long as I can remember.”

“So I’ve heard.” Ryan walked over from where he stood and moved to stand next to Gavin. “I heard some of your work, but I gotta say, hearing you play in person is way better.” The Brit couldn’t help the heat that went to his cheeks after hearing the compliment.

‘He likes my playing.’

“Do you mind playing it again? The song you just played?”

“Oh sure!”

Gavin didn’t care how overjoyed he might of sounded at the simple request. Ryan likes his playing and wanted to hear more of it. He played the song same as before. Even the part with closing his eyes. He played it with the same tempo and inflection, and if anything it sounded stronger than it did during the first play through.

“That’s beautiful Gavin.”

“Thanks. It’s one of the first pieces I ever wrote.”

“Really? How old were you when you wrote it?”

“I was around ten. I wrote it for my mother’s birthday that year.”

“Well, she’s a lucky lady to have gotten such an amazing gift.” The musician smiled and his face blushed again. He was about to say something, but was sadly interrupted.

“There you are Gav!” The men turned to see Barbara coming their way. “I leave for five seconds and you run off. Oh, hey Mr. H.”

“Hello Barbara.”

“So, what are you doing in here?”

“I uh, was bored waiting for you so I walked around and found this place. Then I saw the piano, and couldn’t help myself really.” admitted the Brit.

“What?! I missed hearing you play? Damn it!”

“Sorry, maybe next time love.”

“Man, wish I could just bum around and be in this class with you, just to hear you play.”

“Guess you’ll just have to live through Gavin and Lindsay.”

“Lindsay?” The two blondes nodded their heads together.

“Yeah, she’s Ryan’s TA, or teacher’s assistant.” answered Barbara.

“And she just so happens to be my TA during the class period you’ll be in here.” That means Lindsay and Gavin have a class together. He sighed in relief to that thought. Having at least one person he would know in the class he’ll be the most nervous in. The brief silence was interrupted when there was an echo of what was two stomachs growling. Both Barbara and Gavin grabbed their stomachs in embarrassment of the sound they just made. Ryan just let out a boastful laugh. “Go on, get out of here. Go eat and rest up. I expect to see you in my class on time.”

“Yeah, come on Gavin. Let’s see who we can drag along to go get food.” Barbara pulled Gavin out of the piano’s seat and started to drag his butt with her and out the door.

“Oh, well I’ll see you tomorrow then Haywood!” Called out Gavin before he was gone from the room.

“See you then.” he replied before the boy was gone. “I look forward to it.”


	5. A Good Opening Act

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day of school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a repost from tumblr, where I originally posted it.  
> http://bloopsiedaisy.tumblr.com/

Gavin’s first day went pretty smooth, way better than he originally thought it would go. He lucked out and at least one of his new friends were in each of his classes. Except for one class though, but he didn’t worry too much about that. Ramsey seemed pretty cool and nice enough, figured he’d be alright in his class.

Gavin’s last class of the day was Haywood’s class. Best class for last apparently. As students filled into the class, Ryan spotted Gavin walking in. The two made eye contact and the teacher only smiled as he gestured for the lad to come over to him. The Brit sighed because he could tell what he was going to do. He walked over as instructed regardless, and met Ryan at the front by the boards. As Ryan started to tell the students to settle down and take a seat, Gavin just let his eyes roam around the room. He stopped when he spotted Lindsay walking in and passing by them to go to Ryan’s desk. “Alright, alright. Settle down guys. As some of you may or may not know, we have a new student joining us today.” Ryan spoke, smiling as he looked to Gavin. He could see the worry in his eyes. He knew how to fix that look. “His name is Gavin Free and he’s joining us all the way from England. And I thought we’d start class off today with having Gavin play something for us.” Gavin’s eyes got wide as he looked up to Ryan.

“What? Are you sure that’s a good idea?” He questioned.

“Why not?” Answered the older man with a shrug of his shoulders. “If its anything like what I heard yesterday, then I think its a great idea. I know that they’ll all enjoy hearing you play.”

“It’ll be fine Gavin.” said Lindsay. “Plus I wanna hear you play too. I watched some of your videos last night, and if you don’t play now I’m gonna bug the ever living crap out of you until you finally play.”

The musician let out a defeated sigh, he wasn’t going to win against these two. Might as well play, if anything to get them to shut up and stop pestering him about it. So with that in mind, Gavin dropped his stuff by an empty desk and walked over to the piano. He was going to play something nice, easy and simple. Didn’t want to come off as some flashy, show off type prick. Gavin decided he would play one of his favorite songs to cover. The Song of Storms from the Legend of Zelda series.

It was an easy and fun song to play and manipulate. You have it sound light, soft and uplifting, or dark and dreary. For this run through, Gavin went with something along between the two, where there was a good balance between the two tones. He played for a long enough duration that would satisfy everyone listening. As soon as he stopped playing, Gavin was met with immediate applause from the entire class. Gavin was flattered, it had been a long time since he performed in front of others. It was a nice feeling.

After the performance, class went on like any other day for them. Ryan taught in front of the class for a good while, then he did one on one with some of the students. While he did the one on ones, the others got into their assigned groups to work on group pieces. Since groups were assigned and formed already, Gavin was told to just work on his own work for now. The bell rang and like any other school, when last bell rang everyone bolted out as soon and as fast as they could.

“So what’d you think?” Asked Lindsay standing by Gavin as he collected his stuff together.

“About what?”

“About any of it. Do you like your classes? Do any of them suck? But more importantly, did you like Ryan’s class?”

“It was nice. All of it was. Everyone’s great and the classes aren’t boring like regular school.” He admitted. Lindsay had a huge grin as she threw her arms around the Brit.

“That’s awesome! You’re sitting pretty here Gav!" The lad tried not to topple over as the red head threw herself on him.

"Yeah, I honestly don’t think it can get any better from here.”

“Gavin.” He turned at the sound of his name, and saw that it was Ryan who had called it out. “Could I talk to you for a moment?” Unknown to himself, Gavin’s face started to grow pink at the request. Lindsay noticed, and he could tell she did by the way she was snickering.

“Uh, sure.” He answered as he swung his stuff over his shoulder and walked over. Lindsay followed behind him, and when they reached the front of the desk she leaned in and whispered in his ear.

“Careful Gav. Keep doing that and someone might think you have a crush on him.”

“What?!”

“Anyway, I’ll see you later! Bye!” Before Gavin could get an explanation from the woman, she was out of there. He was brought out of his thoughts from hearing a hearty laugh. Looking over, he saw it was coming from Ryan.

“Lindsay always seems to be in a spirited mood, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“How was your first day?” Asked the older man as he folded his arms, leaning against the front of his desk. Gavin turned to face him properly.

“Great. I can’t find anything to complain about it.” He answered with his best smile.

“That’s good. I would feel awful if you hated it here. Especially since I was the one who asked you to come here.”

“I’m pretty sure I would have accepted your invitation even if I hated it here.” Admitted Gavin before he realized what he said. Ryan raised a brow at the confession.

“Really? Why is that?”

“Well, uh,” He muttered as he wrung his hands. Pausing, he took a deep breath before he tried again. “Because of you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Like I said before, I’ve been following your work for as long as I can remember. Getting to learn from you is like a dream come true for me. The way you play and the heart and soul you put into it. When I first saw you perform, I could tell that the man playing was the kind of man I hoped to be one day. In both a professional and non professional standing.” Gavin felt embarrassed for what he was saying, but he decided not to care. It was the truth and he will admit to it, happily. “When I watch people play, I don’t just see a performer, I see someone trying to convey what’s truly inside of them. Feelings and emotions, intentions and motives. Are they playing to prove something, or playing to give everyone a good time? I watch you and see someone who’s playing for everyone as well as himself. Someone who just enjoys playing music and nothing less.” Looking up, he saw Ryan giving him a warm and gentle smile.

“You flatter me too much Gavin. Thank you.” Gavin smiled, though he brought a hand to cover his face for it was trying to go from pink to red. “Well, what I pulled you over to talk about was to discuss more about you’re being here. After school, we will have one on one sessions. You don’t have to worry about group assignments because of this. You’ll be exempt from that, since you’ll be having extra teachings with me. And our lessons will start tomorrow. Sound good?”

“Yeah, sounds brilliant.”

“Excellent. See you tomorrow then.” Gavin’s small smile grew into a big grin.

“Cheers!” He shouted as he bolted out the doors.

On the other side was Lindsay, who was scared shitless when the doors swung open suddenly. She saw it was Gavin, who looked super giddy. Moving quickly, she jogged after him to try and catch up with him.

“Gavin, slow down!” she called out hoping that would get his attention. When it did not, Lindsay kept going until she could reach out and grab his hand. She tugged him back, and as she did Gavin let a squawk. He calmed down when he saw who had yanked him.

“Oh hey Lindsay. I thought you had left already.”

“I was waiting for you. What was all that running for?”

“Don’t know really. Just happy is all.”

“I can tell, what’s with the goofy grin plastered on your face?”

“Its not goofy!” Lindsay just rolled her eyes as Gavin started to pout, like the five year old she learned he was.

“So what has you so happy? I left the room with you blushing like a school girl.”

“Oh no, I’m not telling you anything. You’ll just tease me, or worse, tell Barbara and have you both tease me.”

“Gavin! I’m hurt that you would accuse me of such a thing.” Said the lass as she clutched at her heart in fake hurt. She looked and saw the look Gavin had now. He was being serious about this. “Gavin, you know you can tell me anything in confidence. If you want to talk serious, I’m here for you. And I’m sure Barbara will feel the same. Just tell us to cut the shit and we will gladly do so.” The Brit smiled at the gesture. 

“Thank you.” He gave her a quick hug before he turned to head out again. “I’ll tell you later, just not now.” Lindsay smiled back as she followed next to him. 

“Fair enough. Just let me know when you wanna have a chat.”

“Will do.”

It was nice to know he would have Lindsay when needed. But he knew it was probably not needed. What he was feeling right now was just joy of having your life long role model and inspiration turn into his teacher and mentor. It was nothing to overthink and turn into something other than admiration.

Because that’s all that it was.

Right?


	6. A Time to Compose One’s Self And Devise A Good Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin and Lindsay have a little talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a repost from tumblr, where I originally posted it.  
> http://bloopsiedaisy.tumblr.com/

The next couple of weeks were all the same, but not in a bad way. Gavin would go to his classes and stay after for his extra lessons. Most of his weekends consisted of hanging with friends, going out for bevs or staying in playing video games. Life right now was pretty sweet.

But as time went on, and weeks turned into months, the Brit started to notice something about himself. He believed he was developing a crush on a certain teacher. It was about a couple lessons ago when he started to come to this realization. The way they would talk to each other, rather it be about music, or Ryan’s hobby of computer work, or Gavin and his friends and what they do together, whatever the subject was talking just seemed to come naturally. They could talk about anything for hours on end. Some of their lessons went on late because of this. Sometimes they would go get food together afterwards if the lesson went on for too long. And it never felt weird. You’d think it would, since they’re teacher and student. But really it was just two friends going to grab a burger.

It wasn’t until Gavin caught himself staring at Ryan during class, admiring his lovely build and stature, how his hands and fingers flexed and relaxed when handling an instrument or machine. It was when the thoughts went in a more, different, direction that he knew he was officially boned. But before he could decide on if he wanted to confront Ryan about this or not, Gavin wanted to make sure what he was feeling was real. That it wasn’t admiration or idolization for the man. So the next Saturday they came by, Gavin asked Lindsay out for lunch to discuss about his thoughts. Though she didn’t know about the talk they were about to had until they were at a local burger joint with their food and sitting at a table.

“Hey Gavin.”

“Yeah?”

“Not that I don’t enjoy spending time together, but why is it only us two?” Asked Lindsay, dunking a fry into her milkshake and taking a bite. “You asked me not to invite Michael and the others to come with us. So, is something up? Are you ok?” Gavin set his burger down as he looked to the redhead, who had a worried expression.

“You remember when you said I could tell you anything? In full confidence, no judging or laughing at me, nothing.” He questioned.

“Yeah.”

“Well, this is one of those times.” The Brit looked to his friend, hoping she wouldn’t change her mind about the offer.

“Does that mean that this is going to be about Ryan?” She asked before dunking another fry. Gavin made a squeak as he splurted into his soda. “I’m going to take that as a yes.”

“How’d you know?” He asked as he wiped soda off of his face.

“I see the way you look at him during class. And how whenever you just hear his name, you get all smiley.” Gavin’s face reddened as Lindsay pegged him pretty spot on.

“That obvious huh?”

“For me, yes. For our friends, probably not. But most importantly, for Ryan, definitely not.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because when it comes to relationship shit like this, Ryan is oblivious. He’s a smart man, but with this kind of thing you have to spell it out for him and possibly smack him over the head with it as well before he gets it.” As Lindsay explained, she watched Gavin nibbled away on his fries. She figured he was trying to process it all. As far as he knows, Lindsay is the only one who knows about his crush on Ryan. And unless he does something about it, Ryan will never know about it. Lindsay finished the rest of her burger before speaking again. “So, what do you wanna do?” She asked.

“I don’t know. My gut says I should tell him. But my brain says that I’m a tosser and should just stay quiet.”

“Well, my gut has never steered me wrong, and it says you should go for it.”

“Really?” Gavin saw Lindsay start to grin at him through the straw for her milkshake.

“Yeah. Ryan could use a guy like you in his life. My gut says so!”

“But what if he laughs at me or something?”

“Gavin!” Her outburst startled him. “Ryan would never do anything that cruel. Even if he did try to turn you down I’d drop kick his ass!” The girl then proceeded to make karate poses with their own sound effects. “Seriously though, you should tell him anyways. I honestly don’t see him saying anything but yes to you.” Lindsay saw the sad face Gavin had and threw a fry at him. The lad squawked and then glared at her. “You tell him or I will.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Would I though?” The Brit groaned, the American lass just grinned evilly. She honestly would, only if she saw it as having nothing but a good result coming from it.

“Yes… Fine, I’ll tell him. Before next weekend, happy?” She was too busy throwing her fist in the hair in victory to give any immediate response. The two finished the rest of their food and then decided to head back.

Even though Gavin still had his doubts about this whole thing working out positively for him, he was happy somewhat about deciding to tell Ryan about it. For the most part, he just wants the weird feeling in his heart to go away, and hopefully doing this will replace it with a better feeling. He already feels better that he told Lindsay about all of this. It was like having an older sister from another country.

“So, you’re absolutely sure that Haywood won’t make fun of me or anything of the sort?” he asked for the third time since they started heading home.

“For the uptenth time Gav, yes I’m sure he won’t. Also if, and when, you guys become a thing, you should call him by his first name.”

“But that’d be weird. He’s still my teacher.” Gavin remembered Ryan saying he didn’t really care what his students addressed him. But he still wanted to be respectful.

“Whatever. Baby steps I guess.” She shrugged. “Just gotta get your foot in the door, that very sexy door.”

“Lindsay!” She busted into a fit of laughter as Gavin started to blush like crazy and squeak while doing so. Her laughter only started to stop when she heard her phone going off. She slowly calmed down as she checked her texts.

“Michael and Ray wanna see if we are cool to hang out for games and maybe even getting drinks later on.” She read off of the text.

“Can we play the new Worms game if we do?” asked Gavin. Somehow switching from worrying lovesick puppy, back to his usual overgrown child self.

“Hell yeah, I haven’t gotten to play it yet!” Lindsay proceed to type up a reply and send it. Once set, she looped arms with the Brit as they walked. The four friends ended up playing video games all through the night. Gavin never once thought about anything that he and Lindsay had discussed earlier. Instead he thought about how in the hell no one could beat Lindsay at Worms. And no one ever did.

Though at one point in the night, some of the neighbors came to their door to ask why they kept hearing ‘bitches ain’t shit!’ throughout the evening.


	7. It's Not Discipline But Devotion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin tries to get his feelings out. Distractions come up and his method is nontraditional.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music in this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSD3XOOwfEQ
> 
> The song is from Steven Universe. I rewrote the first verse to have it try and fit for this, but aside from that the song is exactly the same so I didn’t type those out.
> 
> I almost didn’t add this, but my second option for how to write the confession scene felt kinda of dumb to me idk. ; ;
> 
> This is a repost from tumblr, where I originally posted it.  
> http://bloopsiedaisy.tumblr.com/

Once Gavin was set on telling Ryan about his feelings, he’d figured it’d be easy and pretty straight forward. Just walk up to the man and say what he wanted to say. But apparently God had other plans, because that is totally not what happened.

Everything and anything that could happen, happened.

Monday, Gavin waited for after class, after everyone was gone and before they started their lesson. As he was walking up to Ryan, two classmates came up in front of him. They wanted to ask about some trouble they were having on their project. Once the two students left, Gavin decided to forget it for that day. Tuesday’s attempt failed when Michael came charging in, and saying he was stealing the Brit. Him and Ray had an audio project, and apparently they needed Gavin’s help for it. And Wednesday the same thing happened but in the form of Monty who needed help coming up with music for a scene he was animating. Then on Thursday, Gavin just flat out forgot. So unless he wanted Lindsay to do it, and he really didn’t, Friday was his last chance.

When classes ended for the day, Gavin watched as everyone left and made sure no one lingered. Lindsay told him she would make sure none of the others came to try and snatch him. She also mentioned she would also be back to see how everything went. The lass took her leave and closed the door behind her. Leaving Gavin and Ryan with the room all to themselves.

Ryan was by the board, writing notes for next weekend while he let the two friends have their talk. Gavin was just standing by the front desks, spacing out and going through what he wanted to say like the other hundreds of times he’s done so this week. He pulled himself from his thoughts when he heard his name being called.

“You ready to start Gav?” asked Ryan with a smile, as always.

“Uh yeah, its just-”

“We finished the last few notes for the song from yesterday. I thought we would have you play and hear what it sounds like as a finished piece.”

“That’s great but-”

“Though its a fairly paced song, and not at all complicated, its still your first collaborative piece so-”

“Ryan!”

The older man stopped in his tracks. Turning to face the Brit with a look of shock. Not only was Gavin giving him one of the most serious looks he’s ever seen the boy have. He had just called him by his first name. There was now absolute silence between the two, as they stood there staring at one another. Slowly, a sincere and gentle smile returned to Ryan’s face.

“Do you think you could play first?” He asked, sounding just as sincere and apologetic. Gavin sighed with slight annoyance but then gave a small smile.

“Alright, but after that I have something I would really like to say.” Gavin looked probably the most serious he has ever been. The two of them walked to the piano, Gavin sitting at the seat and Ryan standing to the side.

The music started and scaled up in volume after the first few notes before keeping its place there. It was uplifting and graceful. Every verse or so of it would switch to a more intense tone before going back down to the calmer tone it had through most of the song. Originally Gavin wanted to have someone on guitar, maybe even an electric guitar, join in for the second half of the song. Ryan said no, mainly since this was a personal project. He also thought it would be nice to have some lyrics to go with the music as well.

When the song was over, Gavin immediately pulled himself away from the instrument and turned back to Ryan. Who, by the way, was still just smiling away.

“That was lovely Gavin.” he complimented.

“Not as lovely as you.” The Brit mumbled back as he looked away. Ryan heard about none of what was just mumbled at him. Only catching the last word, ‘lovely’ if he had heard him right.

“Excuse me?”

“I said, not as lovely as you!”

Two outbursts in one day, that’s a record. Gavin looked back to Ryan, looking surprised and confused just like from his first outburst. The lad sighed, it was now or never.

“I, I like you Ryan.”

Slow, but at least he was getting it out and in the open.

“At first, it was admiration. Just a dumb kid from bloody old England who enjoyed listening to the sounds of a great musician from the states. But as we had our lessons together I noticed what was once admiration turn into something else. And it wasn’t just the lessons. When we would go out for food, or we were loafing around and talking about rubbish, I noticed it then too. The man I aspired and wanted to be like, was now the man I found myself wanting to be with.”

As Gavin spoke, his face grew more and more red and when he stopped talking his face was as red as a fire truck. The older man stared at him. He was at a lost for words, one of the rare moments where that happens. When Gavin saw the look on his face, to him it really did look like he beat him over the head with what he just said.

He briefly had his thinking face before he walked to and sat at the piano. Gavin was still sitting at the piano with his back turned to it. He stayed that way as Ryan started to play.

“Why do you have to look up to me?

Aside from in a literal sense.

Don’t you know that I’m not all that grand,

I’m just a crazy mad man.

And can’t you see that you are truly great and wondrous,

I’m telling you for your own good and because I am-”

Ryan sang and played the whole song through right to the end of it. When he finished he turned to Gavin and saw that now he was the one with a confused expression.

“I don’t understand.”

“Yeah, I’m not the best when it comes to expressing feelings.” He shyly admitted. “Basically Gavin, I’m saying I feel the same way.” The Lad’s blank stare slowly turned into a giant smile.

“Really?! Why didn’t you just say so then?”

“Didn’t I just say I suck at this?” The two busted into laughter over their own foolishness, and stayed that way for a good few minutes.

“So does that mean, we’re like a thing now then?” asked Gavin.

“Do you want to?” The Brit blushed at the thought, but smiled at it as well. Like he really had to be asked at this point though.

“Yes!” Gavin impulsively threw himself at Ryan and hugged the man. After a few seconds of hugging, he realized what exactly he was doing and backed off. “I’m sorry! I just got really happy and excited and I wasn’t thinking, I just-” The boy was shut up when the older man put his lips over the younger’s. Gavin tensed for a moment before easing into it and even kissed back. When the two parted, they looked at each other with smiles on their faces.

“As cute as you get when you are flustered, you really apologizing so much. You're fine.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t do it on purpose.”

“Well, we’re just going to have to break you of that habit then.”

The rest of their lesson pretty much consisted of them taking turns playing the piano and just talking to one another. Talking with no hesitation or worries, especially Gavin. He was so happy that he was, not only able to confess his true feelings to another person, but that the person felt the same in return.

And once it came around the usual time when their lessons would end, Lindsay showed up just like she said she would. She walked into the classroom and right away caught sight of them at the piano together. Grinning and laughing away with one another.

“I’m guessing things went well?” She asked with a sly smile. The two were startled at the new voice, not even realizing someone had come in. They both looked over and saw that it was Lindsay. Gavin saw the face she was making, feeling an 'I told you so’ coming up in some form.

“I uh, yeah we’re good. Things are good.” Answered the Brit, back to fumbling with his words. The red head marched over to the piano and picked Gavin up from the seat and pulling him into a hug.

“See! I told you!” She cheered loudly, and in his ear no less. Ryan just laughed as he watched what was happening in front of him.

“I’m guessing you were the one who gave him the push to come forward?” He questioned.

“Well yeah! If I didn’t, you two wouldn't be all giddy and gushy right now! What with Gavin being all shy and meek, and you being oblivious to how others feel.”

“Hey!” The men chimed in together.

“I’m just saying! One of you needed to do something, and if anything Gavin would be the one to do it. And he did! Now you two can be all lovey dovey sappy happy.”

The three just looked to one another, smiling as they realized Lindsay was right, Gavin thought so especially. If not for his friend, he still would be eating his heart and mind out fretting over the whole situation.

Now he couldn’t wait to see what lies ahead for him and his teacher and now boyfriend.


	8. The Closing Number For This Concert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their first date together as a couple. Gavin also finds out about a certain someone's little secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That’s it! That’s the end of this little thing. First ever chaptered fic I’ve done, I’d only done one shots before this.  
> I feel that I could have done better with the ending, but I’m still happy how it came out.
> 
> Thank you everyone and enjoy!
> 
> This is a repost from tumblr, where I originally posted it.  
> http://bloopsiedaisy.tumblr.com/

“Gavin! Hold still!”

“I would if you’d watch your hands! Hey!”

“There, all done!”

Today was the day. Today was the day Gavin and Ryan would have their first date. Gavin was just going to wear one of his usual outfits, but when Barbara heard of this she wasn’t going to stand for it. She pulled him back and forced him into new clothes, that she had apparently secretly bought for him for just such an occasion. Gavin was now wearing a pair of dark skinny jeans and a Union Jack V-neck shirt.

“I feel like I should take offensive that you picked this out for me.” Said the Brit as he gestured to the shirt while looking in the mirror. The Canadian smacked his hand as she walked into view.

“Don’t be such a baby. You look great!”

“My outfit was fine before.”

“And now you’re even better.” Barbara gave Gavin one more look over and then declared the boy all good and ready. When Gavin heard her ‘dat ass’ comment he tackled her to the ground. There was a knock on the door, that went unnoticed, before it opened and Lindsay walked in. First thing she saw was her two foreigners duking it out, or at least trying to.

“I can’t leave you two alone ever, can I?” She asked as she stood with her hands at her hips, looking down on them. “Because whenever I do, I come back to some mess of arms and legs flailing around.” Both blondes looked up from where they lied.

“Not my fault, he started it.” Defended Barbara. She picked herself up and brushed herself off.

“Only because of your fussing over the clothes I wear.” Lindsay gave Gavin her hand and helped him stand up.

“I’m sure your first outfit was fine. And you know Barb is only trying to help.”

“I know.”

“Plus, don’t you want to look cuter than usual? Not only because its a date, but your first date together. Gotta make it one to remember!” Gavin looked to the girls and saw how excited they were. And it wasn’t even their date. They were like this on his behalf since they could tell he didn’t know how to be happy about such a thing like a date. He appreciated the gesture. “Ok, so we ready to go then?”

“We?”

“Yeah. You guys are having the date at our usual hangout. So we figured we would hang around and be back up just in case.” Gavin felt the urge to turn down the idea, but he knew with these two they’d just go and do it anyway. So he saved his breath on this one. “Come on, we gotta leave now if we’re going to get you there on time. We still have to meet up with the boys before heading over there.”

Michael and Ray were waiting downstairs out front for them, and once the three joined them they all headed out. On the day of his confession, when they got home Barbara was there with Michael and Ray. They were playing Mario Party until Lindsay had to go get Gavin from his lesson. And during that time, apparently she had told them what was going down. For when the boy walked in the door he was greeted with giggles and snickering. At first, it was constant teasing and poking fun at him. After hearing about the date, they told him they would have his back. The teasing still occurred, but not as often.

When they walked into the bar, Gavin pretty much had a repeat as he did months ago at his welcome dinner. He stopped dead in his tracks and stood staring off into space while his mind freaked out a mile a minute. Barbara turned to make sure they didn’t lose anyone and she happened to catch sight of Gavin and what he was doing, or rather not doing. She grabbed his hand to pull him over to her. "You really need to stop doing that.” She teased. Gavin shook his head and he came out of his thoughts.

“It’s not like I do this on purpose.” He pouted.

“Oh no, no grumbling and pouting. Not tonight mister! Not when you have a hot date!”

Gavin made one last pout before he deflated. Barbara pulled him along after she spotted Lindsay waving them down. They had found a table for them that had a good view of the bar and most of the place, so they could keep an eye on Gavin and Ryan. Michael and Ray didn’t waste any time flagging down a waitress and immediately ordering food and bevs.

“I don’t see him anywhere.” The Brit worried as he looked around the restaurant. He stood while the others sat down.

“Dude, he’ll be here. We’ve only been here like what, less than ten minutes.” said Ray, attempting to calm his friend’s nerves. “He’ll show up and you guys can make some sweet music together.”

“Just make sure you don’t use lines like that and you’ll be fine.” Michael added. “If Gavin uses any of that shit then he'll leave here with jack shit.” They all looked to their boy and saw him bouncing where he stood. “And I swear to God, if you don’t stop that I’m gonna break your legs! Sit the fuck down or stand still!” That didn’t stop him though, leg kept on bouncing.

“I can’t help it!” He squawked in his defense. He turned to face the group. “I’m so bloody nervous! I’ve never done this before.”

“We know.” Chimed the choir. The Brit whined as he just continued to think and fret over it and just stressing himself out more.

“I’m not ready for this.”

“Well, ready or not, there he is.” Lindsay pointed towards the door. Turning his body, Gavin saw Ryan walking into the pub. The man looked as lovely as ever, or at least according to Gavin’s brain he did. The teacher was wearing dark jeans and a nice shirt that showcased the lovely form of his arms and torso. The boy slammed his fist on the table at this realization and nearly scared his friends shitless from it.

“I think he sees him.” Noted Ray. Michael saw Gavin have a vice grip on the table’s edge, and took that as his cue to help the boy and not just sit around and poke fun at his meltdown. He got up and put his hand on Gavin’s shoulder as he stood next to him.

“Look Gav, you need to calm down before you have a conniption. Do me a favor and take a deep breath.” The musician kept his eyes trained on the older man, but did as Michael asked and started to take some deep breaths. As his friend calmed himself, Michael looked over to where Ryan was. The man sat himself at the bar and begun to look around the restaurant. It only took a few minutes before Ryan caught sight of the boys and saw that it was Gavin and Michael. He smiled and gave a small wave to them. When Gavin saw him looking their way his cheeks got hot and he started to squeak and whine again.

“Boy’s loosing it.” Ray added in again. “Hasn’t even started and he’s already starting to crash.” Michael practically snarled at the thought. He was not gonna let anything fuck up his friend’s first date, not even his friend himself. He gave Gavin a push, literally, towards the bar. Gavin squawked and turned in confusion.

“Go over there and don’t fuck up! Just be yourself. And if he tries any funny business, I’ll kick the shit out of him!” Hearing Michael’s last words as he walked away from them made Gavin smile a little. Strangely enough, it made him feel better. As he made his way to the bar, the Brit noticed Ryan flagging down a bartender and ordered for them.

“H-hey Ryan.” Greeted Gavin as he reached the bar. Ryan just smiled his usual warm, sweet smile. He gave the boy a quick peck on the cheek before pulling a stool out for him.

“Hello Gavin. I hope you don’t mind but I ordered for you.” The older man smiled to the lad as he took a seat by him.

“Oh, t-thank you. I uh,” He tried to talk normal, but all he was getting was stuttering and gibberish. His mind was drawing a blank and just spiraling down. Ryan was able to catch on when Gavin was becoming a nervous mess, just like the others. After watching him do it for almost half a year he could tell when it was happening. He reached his hand out and ruffled the Lad’s hair, which made him squeak out of his ramblings.

“Don’t stress yourself out Gav.” He assured him. “Just treat this like any of the other times it was just you and I.”

“I’m trying! I’m honestly trying so hard to treat it like its not a big deal. Its hard and I’m just bollocksing it up.” The bartender came back with the two beers Ryan had ordered for them. Gavin immediately grabbed his and took a big swig from it. “Its bad enough I feel that I can’t do this on my own, but my friends felt the same and decided to come here to keep an eye on things.” The older man laughed into his drink.

“If it helps I’m not any better off. This is my first date in a long time, so my friends tagged along to, quote unquote 'make sure I don’t fuck this up’.” Gavin raised an eyebrow at the man. 

“Really?” He only got a nod for an answer. Ryan pointed with his drink towards the other side of the restaurant. Over in a booth, that was at the exact opposite end from where Michael and the others were, was Geoff and another teacher Gavin recognized as Jack Pattillo. Gavin couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “Ok yeah, that makes me feel slightly better.” He admitted.

The two musicians spent most of the night just talking and drinking bevs. They talked about random stuff, anything they could think of. Stuff they did outside of class, stories of the past, likes, dislikes. They even talked about stuff they wanted to do together in the future. The whole shabang while having a couple of drinks. Gavin used his straw to play around with his mixed drink. He looked and saw Ryan order one last one for himself as well.

“Hey Ryan?”

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Haven’t we been already doing that this whole time?” The Lad rolled his eyes at the man, who laughed in return. “Sorry, go ahead.”

“Why did you ask me to be your student?” The question caught Ryan off guard, he was not expecting a question like that.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I saw the videos you had posted, and as I listened and watched them, something inside me just told me that I had to meet this amazing young musician and get to know him more.” Gavin’s cheeks went rosy from hearing what Ryan said. Ryan also blushed a bit, feeling a bit foolish about it. “Sounds kind of dumb, I know.”

“No! Not at all! It’s actually really sweet of you.” The lad took hold of the gent’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. The two looked at one another and smiled before laughing at themselves.

“By the way, how did you find my videos? Where you just going through YouTube or something?” Ryan opened his mouth and then closed it immediately. A big grin was on his face and he looked like he was debating on telling or not, like it was a big secret.

“Meh, he’s in another country.” Said the man, making a decision with himself. “Your friend Dan sent me an email, asking me to take a look at some of your videos. He told me which ones I definitely had to look at and that you were an awesome pianist that I had to listen to.” Ryan turned and saw that Gavin looked like he just got hit with a brick.

“What?!”

“He also asked me not to tell you, if I ever decided to try and talk to you. But I thought you might as well know, seeing as we’re at this point now.” The gent finished his drink and watched as the Brit try to collect himself again.

“No wonder the bloody bastard was all smiles and grins every time we talked and I would tell him about my lessons. When I told him about my crush on you, he had the biggest shit eating grin. Makes sense now!” Gavin just about growled that last sentence as he snatched his drink and downed the rest of it.

“So when you look at it, we should be thankful of Dan. Otherwise, none of this would have happened.” The only response Ryan got was a grumbled 'yeah I guess’.

The two spent a few more minutes talking while they waited for the bartender to make his round back so they could pay. Once that was taken care of, they got up and headed for the door. Both of sets of friends saw this, paying their bills and following them out. Gavin and Ryan made it outside and had about less than fives minutes alone together before any of the others made it out.

“How was that for a first date ever?” Asked Ryan as he took hold of Gavin’s hand.

“It was, nice. How was it for a first date in a long time?”

“Excellent.” The gent used his hand to tilt Gavin’s head up and give him a kiss. It was longer than the ones they had shared before and had more emotion than any of those brief pecks on the lips could ever convey. When they broke out of the kiss they just looked to one another with loving smiles.

And like a swift kick to the groin, the sweet moment was over. The two were startled when there was someone suddenly whistling loudly at them. They looked to the side and saw their friends all outside a few feet from them. Gavin groaned as he saw the crude gestures Ray, Michael and even Geoff we’re giving them. Ryan’s only response was nervous laughter. Lindsay gave her boyfriend a smart smack to the back of his head.

“Way to ruin a mood guys.” Lectured Lindsay.

“They were being so cute too.” Barbara added.

“So I’m the only one who gets smacked for it?!” Michael was rubbing the spot on his head as everyone laughed.

“I just thought of it, doesn’t the school have a thing about teachers and students dating?” Asked Ray through the laughter.

“Nah, as long as they keep it in their pants, keep the PDA to a minimum and not let it effect school work, then they’re fine.” Explained Geoff.

Everyone started to walk back to the dorms, Geoff and Jack walking back mostly to make sure they were safe getting home. In the back, a few feet away from them walked Gavin and Ryan. Holding hands and enjoying the first of many sweet and loving moments together.


End file.
